Don't let the dead bite
by StellaTheReviewer
Summary: Nico's life would be awesome if people left him alone, instead of pestering about insignificant injuries. He didn't need Will's constant 'doctor's orders', especially not for some simple dog bite. But a full moon was coming, and Nico wasn't sure it was so simple anymore.
1. Chapter 1

Nico grabbed the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder and tucked up onto a little platform next to the wall. He used the momentum he had from running to swing up to hang onto the ladder. As the monster neared, he scrambled up to the platform.

The monster stopped below him and tried to grab the ladder like he had, but as its short, clumsy fingers wrapped around the rung and it tried to climb, the ladder slid off the platform and clattered to the ground.

While the monster recovered from the short fall and shoved the ladder out of the way, Nico focused on his destination and sank into the deep shadows of the surrounding buildings.

He stumbled into the empty and dark dining pavilion, falling to his hands and knees from the sudden rush of weakness. He was breathing heavily, tired from the running, fighting and shadow travelling. He started getting up, but as he pushed himself up his left upper arm he felt a flare of pain shoot through his entire arm and shoulder. He rolled to the right so that he was sitting on the cold stone floor of the pavilion.

He didn't want to, but he pulled his bloody long-sleeved shirt's sleeve up, uncovering his arm. He let a little hissing sound escape his teeth when he saw it.

In the fight the monster, whatever it was, had bit him, but he hadn't realised just how bad it was. There were two already swollen arcs of big, deep, bleeding marks, with two bigger and deeper marks on both arcs, left by the monster's canine teeth.

He let the sleeve fall back down on the bite and forced himself to stand up. He started walking towards his cabin, but after only a few steps decided not to. He disliked shadow travel, but he disliked the prospect of running into someone right after a fight he hadn't even won even more. So he shadow travelled to his cabin, using up the last bits of his energy in the short trip. There he stumbled to one of the beds, specifically not the one he mostly used since he wanted to avoid getting blood all over his mattress, and without even removing his Stygian Iron chestplate, he fell on the bed and fell asleep.

The next morning, Nico woke up groggily. He pushed a few strands of hair off his face and groaned at how his entire body hurt.

He sat up, swinging his legs off the bed and to the floor. He started undoing the straps holding his chestplate on, but as he had just opened one of them someone knocked on his door.

Nico froze.

There was not even one person in the entire camp who could see Nico, wearing what he wore to battle and covered in dried blood, and not make an unnecessarily big fuss about it.

He got up and sneaked to the door, careful to not make any sound that might alert whoever had knocked that he was there. As he reached the door, he could hear bickering behind it.

"There's no way Nico's gonna join your team. He's my bro. He'd never betray me like that," a voice, easily distinguishable as Percy's, said.

"Oh, _your_ bro? I think you'll very soon see that Nico is _my_ bro, and because of that will join _my_ team," another voice, most likely Jason's, said.

"Whatever," Percy said. "Nico! Get up, we have important stuff to talk about!" He shouted. Nico stayed still. Maybe he could convince them the cabin was empty.

After a while more of waiting, Jason spoke up.

"He's probably gone to have breakfast already. Let's go," he said.

" _You_ can go, but I'm making sure Death Junior is on _my_ team," Percy said, and pushed the door open in one swift motion.

"Nico?" he squeaked. "Why are you- Why do you look like you just wrestled with the Hydra?"

Nico didn't know how to answer, so instead he just said "Uh…"

"Are you okay?" Jason asked.

"I'm fine, how are you?" He said.

Jason looked at his blood-covered, well, _everything_ , and said "Yeah, no you're not. C'mon, let's get you to the infirmary."

"No, no, no. It's fine. No need to worry people, I can deal with this. And what do you even know? I haven't told you what happened yet," Nico said, though he knew Jason and Percy weren't going to take any of it.

"You can tell us on the way there. Let's go," Percy said, stepping forward and grabbing Nico's arm to hold him up, as if he couldn't walk by himself. Jason stepped to his other side to support him from there, and grabbed his arm to hoist it over his shoulders.

Nico flinched, trying to hide how much the bite still hurt.

Jason immediately let go. "Are you injured?" He asked. Nico couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"I hate to sound so much like Annabeth, but _seriously?_ I'm wearing my armour and it's splattered with red, _human_ blood, and you ask me if I'm injured."

Jason sighed, sounding resigned. "What I meant is, _is your arm injured?"_

"Not badly. But I can walk without your help," Nico said, pushing Percy away too.

They walked to the infirmary, not running into many campers since everyone was already at breakfast, and the few they did run into sidetracked quickly at the sight of the children of the Big Three together, with two of them looking worried and stoic but also resigned, like they were completely aware of how the third one was probably badly injured but also knew he would never admit it.

"Nico!" a worried voice shouted the moment they walked through the door. The source of the worried voice ran to them.

"Are you okay? What happened?" He asked.

"I'm fine, seriously Will, you need to stop worrying about me," Nico complained.

"I have the full right to worry when my boyfriend shows up, clearly injured!"

"Okay, okay, fine. But I'm barely even injured."

At this point Percy nudged Jason, signaling to him that maybe they should leave and give Will and Nico some space, and they casually snuck out.

Will pointed at the nearest bed demandingly. "Sit down." Nico obliged. Will started pulling the chestplate's straps open.

"I can do that myself," Nico grumbled.

"But it takes you twice as long. And then you won't be able to tell me what happened while doing something else," Will said.

"Okay," Nico said.

Will waited for a moment, before saying demandingly, "Well?"

"I was in Brooklyn," Nico said, refusing to elaborate without being asked to.

"Why were you in Brooklyn?" Will asked.

"Just, uh, cleaning up the streets?"

"From monsters, sure."

"Well yeah, uh, I did run into a few."

"A few," Will said incredulously. He knew very well how capable Nico was of protecting himself, especially against monsters, and there was no way any less than a small army of them could get him covered in blood.

"Actually just one. But it was a really weird monster. Looked kinda like a dog, but weirdly human too. And my sword passed right through it, so not even a real monster," Nico explained.

Will stopped undoing the strap. "What do you mean your sword did nothing? But… How'd you kill it, then?"

"I didn't. I ran," Nico admitted.

Will's eyes widened as the words sank in. If there was a monster out there that even Nico, one of the most dangerous demigods that had ever been born, couldn't defeat, any less trained and less powerful demigod would have no chance.

He finished undoing the straps quickly, and slipped the metal off Nico.

"Take your shirt off," he commanded. Nico raised an eyebrow. "You'd love that, wouldn't you?"

Will huffed. Nico was impossible. He did take the shirt off though, revealing a surprisingly small amount of wounds, though they were all still quite bad. Will had to bite his lip to not start lecturing Nico about underplaying the severity of his injuries. That was for later.

"Okay, so, what happened before you ran?" Will asked to distract Nico while he got some disinfectant off the nearby table of medical supplies. They had to use strong disinfectants, even though they could hurt.

"I was just walking, actually about to leave, when the weird dog-looking thing just jumped at me. It would've been dead almost immediately if it had been a normal monster, but… My sword just passed right through." Nico winced from the stinging of the disinfectant on his right hand. "So, that caught me off guard, so it managed to land a few hits. I tried to fight it off, but that was pretty useless so I just ran."

Will started wrapping Nico's hand in bandages.

"Hey, don't worry about those. I've had busted knuckles before, it's fine."

"Oh, yeah, totally." Will said unconvincingly, continuing to wrap his hand.

When he finished the hand, he moved to the bite on Nico's upper arm.

"You're lucky this is on your arm, rather than somewhere important," he said.

"You can thank my dad for that. He's the one that gave me the chestplate."

"But, would you wear it if I hadn't told you to?" Will said with a smirk. "This is odd though," he continued.

"What is?" Nico asked.

"It's not the shape of a hellhound bite, but too small to be anything else." Will explained.

"It wasn't a hellhound. More human-looking."

Will frowned. "Doesn't sound like anything I know."

He shifted his attention back to the bite.

"Also this shouldn't be infected yet, since you only got it yesterday," He said.

"Well, it was bleeding a lot yesterday. And kind of hurt," Nico said. Will looked worried.

The door to the infirmary opened, and Hazel walked in.

"Why is it that almost every time I see you two together Nico is hurt and Will has to stitch him up?" She said.

"Oh, hi Hazel! I didn't know you were in camp," Nico greeted, ignoring what Hazel had said.

"Seriously, I don't think a doctor/patient relationship is very healthy," she said.

"We're in an infirmary. How could it get any healthier?" Will pointed out.

Hazel sighed. "Seriously, some day you'll ignore all your other patients to treat a papercut Nico got."

"I don't think he'd come to me for a papercut. He didn't want to get any care for this, either," Will said, gesturing to the bite. Hazel only noticed it then, rushing forward.

"Nico! Are you okay?" she asked.

"How many times are people going to ask that? It's not even bad. I've had much worse," Nico said.

"The day Nico stops underestimating his injuries I'll stop being the one who treats him every time. Someone else might even believe him," Will said.

"Will's gotten everyone, like, every single demigod in camp, to stop believing me," Nico complained.

"Your fault for being stubborn. "No, I'm fine," "I already ate," "It's not that bad," "I'm not tired,"" Will said, mimicking Nico.

"I'm not stubborn. And I _don't_ sound like that," Nico said.

"You kinda do," Hazel said.

Will got up, opened a nearby medical cabinet and grabbed a little golden square.

"Eat this," he said, handing it to Nico. He crossed his arms, despite it kind of hurting because of the bite, and said "I don't need ambrosia."

"Totally you don't, mister I'm-not-stubborn," Will said, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, if you'll stop fussing," Nico said, taking the square.

"I'll stop fussing, but you still have to come here every day to get the bandages on that bite changed until it's healed. And no fighting."

An hour later Nico had showered, changed, walked to the training area and started sparring with some new Ares camper who had been stupid and arrogant enough to challenge him. Obviously Nico was winning. He'd let the kid almost win first, even dropping his sword, but then he had shadow travelled behind him, picked up the sword and had easily gotten the upper hand.

Now the kid was getting frustrated.

"C'mon, just throw your sword away and we can be done with this," Nico said.

The Ares kid refused, tightening her expression. Nico stepped to the side when she lunged forward.

He pushed his foot out, kicking her ankle and tripping her. Her sword went clattering along the sandy ground.

"Thanks for the fight," Nico said, sheathing his sword, picking up her sword and putting it back on the weapon rack.

"Who's next?" He asked the little audience they had gathered. Nobody volunteered, but from some group of friends one guy was pushed forward. Nico raised an eyebrow at him.

"You want to fight?"

"Uh," he said, glancing back at his friends. "I guess?"

They started sparring. Nico wanted to stretch the fight, since ending it immediately would just be boring.

But just as the fight was getting interesting and Nico was getting a little short on breath, an angry voice shouted "Nico. Di. Angelo!" from the group watching the fight.

Nico quickly disarmed his opponent and turned to look at Will, stomping across the sparring ground.

"Yes?" He asked innocently. Will crossed his arms.

"No fighting, remember?"

"But I was taking it easy!" Nico complained. Will grabbed his forearm, dragging him away.

"Come on, Will," Nico pleaded. "What am I supposed to do? Sit in my cabin all day, not allowed to do _anything_ because of one little bite?"

"No, but you _can_ not go fighting anyone who will volunteer."

"But it's fun! Also I can walk by myself, you don't have to keep holding me," Nico said.

"But if I let you go, you'll just go running to the climbing wall or something."

"Hey, you never said anything about not climbing."

Will sighed.

"You're impossible, Nico."

"Hey, my arm wasn't even hurting much."

"Your arm was hurting?"

"Uh, a little?"

"It's not supposed to. I put a healing charm on the bite. And you ate ambrosia."

"Oh," Nico said, starting to feel a little dizzy. He half collapsed, leaning on Will. He grasped at the bite, which had started to burn.

"Nico?" Will asked, worried.

"M'fine…" Nico said.


	2. Percy is wise?

"Oookay. Okay. Let's get back to the infirmary," Will said.

"Hey, Kayla! Help me out here?" He called out to one of his siblings, practising archery nearby. She glanced at him, let go of the arrow she had already pulled back, letting it fly into the target, and ran towards him.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Can you help me carry him to the Big House?"

She glanced at Nico, and said, "Oh. Didn't realise he was half-unconscious."

"Why would he be clinging to me if he wasn't?" Will asked.

"Because you're you. And Nico is Nico," she explained very unhelpfully.

"What does that even mean?"

"He sits at our table just because you can't stand being away from each other for more than two seconds. He's started archery even though his aim is even worse than yours - and that's saying something-"

"Hey, I'm right here," Nico said indignantly. "And you don't have to carry me. I can walk," he continued, letting go of Will. He managed to stumble a few steps forward, before falling on his face.

"Urgh," he said. Will raised an eyebrow at him.

"Can walk, huh?"

Nico huffed.

They got to the infirmary much slower than they should have, thanks to Nico telling them that "No, really, I can walk now" multiple times, falling down after a few feet every time.

"You handle this, Will, I'm gonna go back to archery," Kayla said.

Will nodded, hoisting Nico onto one of the beds.

"Stay," he said.

Nico glared at him.

He grabbed a bottle of nectar from the cabinets. Then, against Nico's protests, he pressed his palm to his forehead.

"Oh wow," Will said. "You're hot."

"Of course you think so," Nico said. Will rolled his eyes.

"I mean you have a very high temperature. Drink this," He said, handing Nico the bottle.

"I'm fine, Will. Just a bit tired."

"Yeah, totally. The last time you collapsed and told me you were just tired, you almost died."

"That was the time before last time, actually. Last time I really was just tired," Nico said, but obliged and tried to twist open the bottle. Will watched his futile attempts for a while before reaching in and twisting the cap off. Nico frowned at the bottle.

"Give me your arm," Will said. Nico, surprisingly, held out his arm without complaints.

Will unwrapped the bandage.

"Nico… Is there something you're not telling me?" he asked as he saw what the bite looked like now.

"What do you mean?" Nico asked with a falsely innocent voice.

"The only bites that can get infected this quickly are human bites."

"Yes?"

"But this is still shaped like a wolf bite."

"Yes?"

Will sighed. "Nico, what bit you?"

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you the truth. It was a werewolf," he said, as nonchalantly as he would talk about the weather.

"What?" Will asked incredulously.

"A werewolf," Nico said slowly.

"You got bit by Lycaon and said it was some dog?"

"No, not Lycaon. Some other werewolf. Lycaon would've talked more, this one just attacked immediately," Nico explained.

"Nico," Will said accusingly.

"Okay, fine, I should've told you, but it's not that bad!"

"Yes, it is. If you were completely mortal and I hadn't put the healing charm on it, you'd be either dead or in a coma by now!"

"But I'm not! So, put some healing stuff on it, and I can go back to the training ground."

Will rolled his eyes. "That's not how it works, and you know it."

Nico glared at the wall.

Will glared at Nico.

Suddenly the door burst open and both boys looked at the door, though it didn't undo the tension in the air.

"Whoa, am I interrupting something?" Percy asked, backing off a few steps.

"Oh, no, it's fine," Will said, shifting a little.

"You shouldn't have let Nico leave earlier," Percy accused Will.

"I can manage-"

Will cut off Nico's protests. "Yes, Percy. You're right. I shouldn't have let Nico leave. I just thought he had some sense of self-preservation."

Nico huffed and crossed his arms. "That's not true."

"What's not- You don't have a sense of self-preservation or Will thought you do?" Percy said.

"Oh, really? What about when the war ended?" Will said, ignoring Percy, and got up.

"Hey, if I hadn't brought the statue here, I would be dead for sure. All of us would be!"

"You didn't have to still-"

Percy grabbed Will's arm lightly but firmly. "Hey, hey, calm down. Both of you," he said, looking at Nico pointedly. "Will, can I talk to you for a moment?" He said, and without waiting for an answer, pulled the son of Apollo away and into the hallway, closing the door quietly. He let go of Will's arm.

"It's good and all that you're taking care of Nico," he said. "And I get why you want to. But I think you're smothering him a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Nico isn't a very open person. He went for years lying to everybody, lying to himself, about his feelings. He almost let himself be killed rather than admit them. He isn't used to being open about things."

"Yeah, and I'd like to change that! He doesn't have to keep hiding stuff. And why does this even matter?"

Percy sighed. "You two are together now, right?"

Will stiffened. "Yes- I guess. Technically."

"Since when?"

"You know already."

"Yes, I know, but I don't think you understand. You've been together for a month soon. Have you kissed yet?"

Will looked at the floor, trying to find anything to focus on but this conversation. "No," he admitted.

"Exactly. Nico isn't ready for a relationship yet."

"Doesn't necessarily mean that," Will mumbled.

"But it does. Why do you think you haven't kissed? Why you don't even spend that much time together, despite being 'official'?" Percy said, sarcastically air quoting the last word.

"I- Every time, he backs off. I don't know why. And whenever I ask him to go to the beach, or just go anywhere together, he has some excuse. So I only really see him in groups, when we practice things together," Will stopped looking at the floor and looked up at Percy. "I don't know what to do! I try to get him to open up, and it doesn't work. All I can do is to try give him some space and hope he can figure things out. And then he goes on some pointless 'mission' in Brooklyn just to fight monsters."

Percy looked at Will understandingly. "That's just what Nico does. He's one of the bravest people I've ever met in battle. And I've seen how many people fight. When it comes to a real fight, where dying isn't that improbable, most people will escape. Nico never has, and probably never will. But when it comes to things he can't fight, the only way to deal with them he knows is to run away." He shrugged. "That's just how he is."

Will tried to blink away the tears in his eyes. He looked back down. "Can you talk to him?" He asked.

Percy shook his head. "That's your job." Without another word, he patted Will's shoulder understandingly and walked away. Will stood there until he heard the door of the Big House open and close as Percy left. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, and took a moment to gather himself before walking back into the infirmary.

Nico looked away from the half-empty bottle of nectar he'd been staring into for the past few minutes when the door opened again. Will stepped in, taking up about half the space he usually did, as if he was trying to make himself look smaller.

"Is something wrong?" Nico asked cautiously. He might not show it a lot, but he cared about Will.

Will shrugged. He returned to sit next to Nico, and started applying some sort of ointment on the bite with speed and effectiveness that could only be learned from doing it countless times.

Nico noticed that there were some lines on Will's cheeks, and his eyes were slightly red. He decided not to mention that he had been crying only moments ago.

"What did Percy want to talk about?" He demanded kindly.

Will looked away. "Nothing," he said unconvincingly.

Nico frowned. Obviously Will didn't want to talk about it. So he let it go, and watched distantly as Will wrapped his arm in fresh bandages, cleaned everything up and left.


End file.
